Conservative students feel pressure to self-censor

'A new study reveals that conservative college students cope with left-leaning professors by self-censoring during class discussions and parroting their professors’ political views on homework assignments.

The study, “Students’ Religiosity and Perceptions of Political Bias: Some Empirical Lessons for Sociology Professors,” was led by Jeremiah Wills, a political science professor at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina.

To learn about conservative students, Wills and his team surveyed 394 students at Wayne State University using an online questionnaire. Survey questions were designed to gauge students’ political stance, and whether that stance impacts students’ behavior in class.

For example, students were asked to report if they felt the need to “censor their own political beliefs to preserve their grade” and if, while doing homework, they “feel obligated to incorporate their professors’ beliefs rather than their own.”

The study is the first of its kind to “document a link between religious and conservative and moderate students’ perceptions of political bias in the classroom and their reactions to such perceived biases,” Wills noted during an interview with Campus Reform.'